Wednesday, January 30, 2013

plotz

plotz \plots\, verb:

To collapse or faint, as from surprise, excitement, or exhaustion.

And there would be no way to hide the official tail on her parents' manicured, sweeping drive. "God, Mother would plotz."
-- Elizabeth Lowell, Die in Plain Sight
I mean, the consul would have plotzed, since it would have made him directly involved.
-- Avner Mandelman, Talking to the Enemy

Plotz is an Americanism that first arose in the 1940s. It comes from the Yiddish word platsn which meant "to crack, split, burst." That word in turn originated in the German word blatzen or platzen.

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